Archive for August, 2008
BANS Will be Closed Monday and Tuesday Next Week
I received an email from Kelvin and Adam today letting us know that BANS will be closed on Monday and Tuesday next week while they make some changes. Looks like we may be in for some cool new changes. You can read the full email below in case you’re not signed up to receive updates by email:
We wanted to let you know that we will be closing the whole of the
BANS website (forum and support centre included) on Monday 11th
August at 9am BST (UK time) and will be re-opening on Wednesday
13th August.We have been working on making structural improvements to BANS (of
which the new support centre was the first) and this down time is
happening to enable us to implement these changes.Comprehensive details will be sent out early next week but below is
a summary of the things that will be changing:1. New site design.
2. New presentation of BANS on the main website.
3. New affiliate centre.
4. A re-work of the member area.
5. The inclusion of new templates.
6. The conversion of the forum from phpBB to vBulletin.
7. New forum sections.
8. A forum clean up including the deletion and moving of posts.
9. The introduction of forum rules.
10. An expansion of the technical knowledgebase contained inside
the support centre.We have run tests converting the forum from phpBB to vBulletin and
the “carrying over” of both the forum threads and the registration
details is not a problem. Thus when BANS re-opens on Wednesday 13th
you will be able to log in to the new forum using your existing
username and password.Until then enjoy your weekend and keep your eye out for further
details early next week.Things are changing…
Kelvin and Adam
Tags: bans
Why Add a Blog to BANS
In the last couple of posts I have been talking about integrating our BANS stores with a Wordpress blog. Some of you may be wondering why this is so exciting and important. There are really two reasons for this and both are related to being able to rank better in the search engines, particularly Google.
First, and the the most evident reason is it allows BANS users to build websites that are not cookie cutter copies of every other BANS store out there. By having the ability to add variety to our stores by using a Wordpress template, most of which are free, will change the footprint of the BANS store making it unique.
Secondly, using a blog with your BANS website allows you to easily add unique content in the form of your blog posts. I subscribe to an Online Marketing Blog, and this morning there is an article on the importance of providing information to your visitors that they will want to link to rather than submitting your site to link directories and social networking sites.
You can read the article using the link above, then start adding unique articles to your BANS stores whether you decide to use a blog with your BANS sites or not.
Tags: articles, bans, link directories, social networking, Wordpress
Continuing to Grow Your BANS Business
A few months ago, I did a short series of posts introducing Build a Niche Store for Beginners with step by step instructions for getting started. I first came across Build a Niche Store (otherwise known as BANS) in November last year while searching for information on internet marketing. I knew immediately that this was something I could do, and that I would make money. It just made sense to me.
As just a short recap, BANS software along with the eBay affiliate program allows you to easily build stores filled with products you specify using and eBay feeds that pull the product into your store. When someone clicks on an eBay item listed in your store, they are taken to eBay taking a tracking cookie from your affiliate ID along with them. If they purchase an item on eBay within 7 days (the length of time your cookie is linked), eBay will pay you a percentage of the fee they collect from the seller, usually about 50%. Read more about the eBay Affiliate Program.
I have watched my income grow steadily since November through adding more stores (I currently have 12), following the suggestions on the BANS forum, and I was fortunate early on to discover a blog by Mark Hansen at The Niche Store Builder. I subscribed to his RSS feed and do not miss a day reading his posts. If you read my previous post, you know that I am currently following his series on how to integrate your BANS website with Wordpress so you have an easy way to add relevant content using all the Wordpress features and plug-ins and incorporate your BANS store using the same template. This is going to take my BANS empire to the next level.
People on the BANS forum have been asking for this feature to be added to the Build a Niche Store software for a while. There are others who have figured out a way to use WordPress templates for their BANS stores, some are adding WordPress Blogs to their stores, and I’m sure there are a few who have figured out how to incorporate the two as Mark has, but I haven’t found another person who is taking the time to teach anyone who wants to learn, how to do it. And he is doing it for free (although donations are always deserved and welcomed)!
So, if you are new to Build a Niche Store, still thinking about getting started, or a veteran BANS builder, I highly recommend that you check out the Mark’s new Converting Wordpress Themes into a BANS Template series.
If you want to see the difference in how a Build a Niche Store site with a Wordpress Blog looks compared to a BANS/Wordpress integrated site looks, I have a site done each way. I added a blog to to a subfolder on my Vintage Collectible Dolls site, click on the blog link in the left column. As you will see, I was able to copy some of the look of the BANS site. It took a lot of trial and error and it is not identical. Plus, the categories from BANS is not pulled into the blog. I had to add all the store category links manually. Anytime I add a new store page, I have to go in and update the links in the sidebar of the blog. Also, none of the blog content links show up on the store pages.
To see a BANS/Wordpress integrated site go to Casual Dinnerware Sets. The BANS site and the Wordpress sites are identical. Best of all, everytime I update my BANS store, the blog is automatically updated as well. When I add content to the blog, the link is added to the store side also.
Learn to Convert Wordpress Themes into BANS Templates
I posted a couple of weeks ago about a Wordpress/BANS integrated template I bought from Mark Hansen at The Niche Store Builder. I am following a new series Mark started today called Converting WordPress Themes into a BANS Template. In this series, those who follow along, will learn how to do the conversion themselves.
Mark’s instructions are always easy to follow and most are accompanied by a step by step video walking you through the process. If you want to learn how to convert your own Wordpress themes into BANS templates, you will want to follow this new series.
Let me know if you convert a wordpress theme into a bans template and post your link if you like. I will be posting my progress as I go and will post the link to my first site as soon as its up and running.
